Numbers 11-14

Young's Literal Translation

11 And the people is evil, as those sighing habitually in the ears of Jehovah, and Jehovah heareth, and His anger burneth, and the fire of Jehovah burneth among them, and consumeth in the extremity of the camp.

² And the people cry unto Moses, and Moses prayeth unto Jehovah, and the fire is quenched;

³ and he calleth the name of that place Taberah, for the fire of Jehovah hath `burned' among them.

⁴ And the rabble who [are] in its midst have lusted greatly, and the sons of Israel also turn back and weep, and say, `Who doth give us flesh?

⁵ We have remembered the fish which we do eat in Egypt for nought, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick;

⁶ and now our soul [is] dry, there is not anything, save the manna, before our eyes.'

⁷ And the manna is as coriander seed, and its aspect as the aspect of bdolach;

⁸ the people have turned aside and gathered [it], and ground [it] with millstones, or beat [it] in a mortar, and boiled [it] in a pan, and made it cakes, and its taste hath been as the taste of the moisture of oil.

⁹ And in the descending of the dew on the camp by night, the manna descendeth upon it.

¹⁰ And Moses heareth the people weeping by its families, each at the opening of his tent, and the anger of Jehovah burneth exceedingly, and in the eyes of Moses [it is] evil.

¹¹ And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `Why hast Thou done evil to Thy servant? and why have I not found grace in Thine eyes -- to put the burden of all this people upon me?

¹² I -- have I conceived all this people? I -- have I begotten it, that Thou sayest unto me, Carry it in thy bosom as the nursing father beareth the suckling, unto the ground which Thou hast sworn to its fathers?

¹³ Whence have I flesh to give to all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give to us flesh, and we eat.

¹⁴ I am not able -- I alone -- to bear all this people, for [it is] too heavy for me;

¹⁵ and if thus Thou art doing to me -- slay me, I pray Thee; slay, if I have found grace in thine eyes, and let me not look on mine affliction.'

¹⁶ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou hast known that they are elders of the people, and its authorities; and thou hast taken them unto the tent of meeting, and they have stationed themselves there with thee,

¹⁷ and I have come down and spoken with thee there, and have kept back of the Spirit which [is] upon thee, and have put on them, and they have borne with thee some of the burden of the people, and thou dost not bear [it] thyself alone.

¹⁸ `And unto the people thou dost say, Sanctify yourselves for to-morrow, and ye have eaten flesh (for ye have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who doth give us flesh? for we [had] good in Egypt) -- and Jehovah hath given to you flesh, and ye have eaten.

¹⁹ Ye do not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days; --

²⁰ unto a month of days, till that it come out from your nostrils, and it hath become to you an abomination; because that ye have loathed Jehovah, who [is] in your midst, and weep before Him, saying, Why is this? -- we have come out of Egypt!'

²¹ And Moses saith, `Six hundred thousand footmen [are] the people in whose midst I [am]; and Thou, Thou hast said, Flesh I give to them, and they have eaten, a month of days!

²² Is flock and herd slaughtered for them, that one hath found for them? -- are all the fishes of the sea gathered for them -- that one hath found for them?'

²³ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Is the hand of Jehovah become short? now thou dost see whether My word meeteth thee or not.'

²⁴ And Moses goeth out, and speaketh unto the people the words of Jehovah, and gathereth seventy men of the elders of the people, and causeth them to stand round about the tent,

²⁵ and Jehovah cometh down in the cloud, and speaketh unto him, and keepeth back of the Spirit which [is] on him, and putteth on the seventy men of the elders; and it cometh to pass at the resting of the Spirit on them, that they prophesy, and do not cease.

²⁶ And two of the men are left in the camp, the name of the one [is] Eldad, and the name of the second Medad, and the spirit resteth upon them, (and they are among those written, and have not gone out to the tent), and they prophesy in the camp;

²⁷ and the young man runneth, and declareth to Moses, and saith, `Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.'

²⁸ And Joshua son of Nun, minister of Moses, [one] of his young men, answereth and saith, `My lord Moses, restrain them.'

²⁹ And Moses saith to him, `Art thou zealous for me? O that all Jehovah's people were prophets! that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!'

³⁰ And Moses is gathered unto the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

³¹ And a spirit hath journeyed from Jehovah, and cutteth off quails from the sea, and leaveth by the camp, as a day's journey here, and as a day's journey there, round about the camp, and about two cubits, on the face of the land.

³² And the people rise all that day, and all the night, and all the day after, and gather the quails -- he who hath least hath gathered ten homers -- and they spread them out for themselves round about the camp.

³³ The flesh is yet between their teeth -- it is not yet cut off -- and the anger of Jehovah hath burned among the people, and Jehovah smiteth among the people -- a very great smiting;

³⁴ and [one] calleth the name of that place Kibroth-Hattaavah, for there they have buried the people who lust.

³⁵ From Kibroth-Hattaavah have the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they are in Hazeroth.

12 And Miriam speaketh -- Aaron also -- against Moses concerning the circumstance of the Cushite woman whom he had taken: for a Cushite woman he had taken;

² and they say, `Only by Moses hath Jehovah spoken? also by us hath he not spoken?' and Jehovah heareth.

³ And the man Moses [is] very humble, more than any of the men who [are] on the face of the ground.

⁴ And Jehovah saith suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, `Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting;' and they three come out.

⁵ And Jehovah cometh down in the pillar of the cloud, and standeth at the opening of the tent, and calleth Aaron and Miriam, and they come out both of them.

⁶ And He saith, `Hear, I pray you, My words: If your prophet is of Jehovah -- in an appearance unto him I make Myself known; in a dream I speak with him;

⁷ not so My servant Moses; in all My house he [is] stedfast;

⁸ mouth unto mouth I speak with him, and [by] an appearance, and not in riddles; and the form of Jehovah he beholdeth attentively; and wherefore have ye not been afraid to speak against My servant -- against Moses?'

⁹ And the anger of Jehovah burneth against them, and He goeth on,

¹⁰ and the cloud hath turned aside from off the tent, and lo, Miriam [is] leprous as snow; and Aaron turneth unto Miriam, and lo, leprous!

¹¹ And Aaron saith unto Moses, `O, my lord, I pray thee, lay not upon us sin [in] which we have been foolish, and [in] which we have sinned;

¹² let her not, I pray thee, be as [one] dead, when in his coming out from the womb of his mother -- the half of his flesh is consumed.'

¹³ And Moses crieth unto Jehovah, saying, `O God, I pray Thee, give, I pray Thee, healing to her.'

¹⁴ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `And her father had but spat in her face -- is she not ashamed seven days? she is shut out seven days at the outside of the camp, and afterwards she is gathered.'

¹⁵ And Miriam is shut out at the outside of the camp seven days, and the people hath not journeyed till Miriam is gathered;

¹⁶ and afterwards have the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and they encamp in the wilderness of Paran.

13 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

² `Send for thee men, and they spy the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel; one man, one man for the tribe of his fathers ye do send, every one a prince among them.'

³ And Moses sendeth them from the wilderness of Paran by the command of Jehovah; all of them [are] men, heads of the sons of Israel they are,

⁴ and these their names: For the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur.

⁵ For the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori.

⁶ For the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh.

⁷ For the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph.

⁸ For the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea, son of Nun.

⁹ For the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu.

¹⁰ For the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi.

¹¹ For the tribe of Joseph, (for the tribe of Manasseh,) Gaddi son of Susi.

¹² For the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli.

¹³ For the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael.

¹⁴ For the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi.

¹⁵ For the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.

¹⁶ These [are] the names of the men whom Moses hath sent to spy the land; and Moses calleth Hoshea son of Nun, Jehoshua.

¹⁷ And Moses sendeth them to spy the land of Canaan, and saith unto them, `Go ye up this [way] into the south, and ye have gone up the mountain,

¹⁸ and have seen the land what it [is], and the people which is dwelling on it, whether it [is] strong or feeble; whether it [is] few or many;

¹⁹ and what the land [is] in which it is dwelling, whether it [is] good or bad; and what [are] the cities in which it is dwelling, whether in camps or in fortresses;

²⁰ And what the land [is], whether it [is] fat or lean; whether there is wood in it or not; and ye have strengthened yourselves, and have taken of the fruit of the land;' and the days [are] days of the first-fruits of grapes.

²¹ And they go up and spy the land, from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob at the going in to Hamath;

²² and they go up by the south, and come in unto Hebron, and there [are] Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, children of Anak (and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt),

²³ and they come in unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down thence a branch and one cluster of grapes, and they bear it on a staff by two, also [some] of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

²⁴ That place hath [one] called Brook of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the sons of Israel cut from thence.

²⁵ And they turn back from spying the land at the end of forty days.

²⁶ And they go and come in unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto all the company of the sons of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and they bring them and all the company back word, and shew them the fruit of the land.

²⁷ And they recount to him, and say, `We came in unto the land whither thou hast sent us, and also it [is] flowing with milk and honey -- and this [is] its fruit;

²⁸ only, surely the people which is dwelling in the land [is] strong; and the cities are fenced, very great; and also children of Anak we have seen there.

²⁹ Amalek is dwelling in the land of the south, and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite is dwelling in the hill country, and the Canaanite is dwelling by the sea, and by the side of the Jordan.'

³⁰ And Caleb stilleth the people concerning Moses, and saith, `Let us certainly go up -- and we have possessed it; for we are thoroughly able for it.'

³¹ And the men who have gone up with him said, `We are not able to go up against the people, for it [is] stronger than we;'

³² and they bring out an evil account of the land which they have spied unto the sons of Israel, saying, `The land into which we passed over to spy it, is a land eating up its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in its midst [are] men of stature;

³³ and there we saw the Nephilim, sons of Anak, of the Nephilim; and we are in our own eyes as grasshoppers; and so we were in their eyes.'

14 And all the company lifteth up and give forth their voice, and the people weep during that night;

² and all the sons of Israel murmur against Moses, and against Aaron, and all the company say unto them, `O that we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, O that we had died!

³ and why is Jehovah bringing us in unto this land to fall by the sword? our wives and our infants are become a prey; is it not good for us to turn back to Egypt?'

⁴ And they say one unto another, `Let us appoint a head, and turn back to Egypt.'

⁵ And Moses falleth -- Aaron also -- on their faces, before all the assembly of the company of the sons of Israel.

⁶ And Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, of those spying the land, have rent their garments,

⁷ and they speak unto all the company of the sons of Israel, saying, `The land into which we have passed over to spy it, [is] a very very good land;

⁸ if Jehovah hath delighted in us, then He hath brought us in unto this land, and hath given it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey;

⁹ only, against Jehovah rebel not ye: and ye, fear not ye the people of the land, for our bread they [are]; their defence hath turned aside from off them, and Jehovah [is] with us; fear them not.'

¹⁰ And all the company say to stone them with stones, and the honour of Jehovah hath appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Until when doth this people despise Me? and until when do they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have done in its midst?

¹² I smite it with pestilence, and dispossess it, and make thee become a nation greater and mightier than it.'

¹³ And Moses saith unto Jehovah, `Then have the Egyptians heard! for Thou hast brought up with Thy power this people out of their midst,

¹⁴ and they have said [it] unto the inhabitant of this land, they have heard that Thou, Jehovah, [art] in the midst of this people, that eye to eye Thou art seen -- O Jehovah, and Thy cloud is standing over them, -- and in a pillar of cloud Thou art going before them by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ `And Thou hast put to death this people as one man, and the nations who have heard Thy fame have spoken, saying,

¹⁶ From Jehovah's want of ability to bring in this people unto the land which He hath sworn to them -- He doth slaughter them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ `And now, let, I pray Thee, the power of my Lord be great, as Thou hast spoken, saying:

¹⁸ Jehovah [is] slow to anger, and of great kindness; bearing away iniquity and transgression, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on a third [generation], and on a fourth; --

¹⁹ forgive, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy kindness, and as Thou hast borne with this people from Egypt, even until now.'

²⁰ And Jehovah saith, `I have forgiven, according to thy word;

²¹ and yet, I live -- and it is filled -- the whole earth -- [with] the honour of Jehovah;

²² for all the men who are seeing My honour, and My signs, which I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and try Me these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice --

²³ they see not the land which I have sworn to their fathers, yea, none of those despising Me see it;

²⁴ and My servant Caleb, because there hath been another spirit with him, and he is fully after Me -- I have brought him in unto the land whither he hath entered, and his seed doth possess it.

²⁵ `And the Amalekite and the Canaanite are dwelling in the valley; to-morrow turn ye and journey for yourselves into the wilderness -- the way of the Red Sea.'

²⁶ And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,

²⁷ `Until when hath this evil company that which they are murmuring against Me? the murmurings of the sons of Israel, which they are murmuring against Me, I have heard;

²⁸ say unto them, I live -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- if, as ye have spoken in Mine ears -- so I do not to you;

²⁹ in this wilderness do your carcases fall, even all your numbered ones, to all your number, from a son of twenty years and upward, who have murmured against Me;

³⁰ ye -- ye come not in unto the land which I have lifted up My hand to cause you to tabernacle in it, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.

³¹ `As to your infants -- of whom ye have said, A spoil they are become -- I have even brought them in, and they have known the land which ye have kicked against;

³² as to you -- your carcases do fall in this wilderness,

³³ and your sons are evil in the wilderness forty years, and have borne your whoredoms till your carcases are consumed in the wilderness;

³⁴ by the number of the days [in] which ye spied the land, forty days, -- a day for a year, a day for a year -- ye do bear your iniquities, forty years, and ye have known my breaking off;

³⁵ I [am] Jehovah, I have spoken; if I do not this to all this evil company who are meeting against me; -- in this wilderness they are consumed, and there they die.'

³⁶ And the men whom Moses hath sent to spy the land, and they turn back and cause all the company to murmur against him, by bringing out an evil account concerning the land,

³⁷ even the men bringing out an evil account of the land die by the plague before Jehovah;

³⁸ and Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, have lived of those men who go to spy out the land.

³⁹ And Moses speaketh these words unto all the sons of Israel, and the people mourn exceedingly,

⁴⁰ and they rise early in the morning, and go up unto the top of the mountain, saying, `Here we [are], and we have come up unto the place which Jehovah hath spoken of, for we have sinned.'

⁴¹ And Moses saith, `Why [is] this? -- ye are transgressing the command of Jehovah, and it doth not prosper;

⁴² go not up, for Jehovah is not in your midst, and ye are not smitten before your enemies;

⁴³ for the Amalekite and the Canaanite [are] there before you, and ye have fallen by the sword, because that ye have turned back from after Jehovah, and Jehovah is not with you.'

⁴⁴ And they presume to go up unto the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and Moses have not departed out of the midst of the camp.

⁴⁵ And the Amalekite and the Canaanite who are dwelling in that mountain come down and smite them, and beat them down -- unto Hormah.